In June Apple unveiled the company’s competitor to the Amazon Echo smart speaker. And we’re excited about it. Similar to the Echo and the Google Home, the HomePod is a speaker that is always-listening, plays music, answers questions, manages central heating, locks doors, turns off lights, the list is endless.

It’s due out this December in the US, UK and Australia and will cost $349. That’s roughly £270 in the UK. The Echo’s only $180 and the Google Home’s even cheaper at $130.

Apple is marketing HomePod as a mix between the Amazon Echo smart AI and a Sonos-quality speaker. The HomePod is being sold as a speaker first and foremost, but make no mistake, it bears a lot in common with both the Echo and the Google Home.

The personal touch

We are impressed by the HomePod & Google Home because they offer more personalised commands than the Echo with customizable “scenes.” With scenes, you can say something like “good night” to Siri, and HomeKit will turn off your lights, lock your doors and set the temperature you like for bedtime. HomePod will supposedly offer full compatibility with scenes right away.

One of Google Home best features is that It can actually recognize who’s talking, and personalise response’s. The whole family can train the Google Home, and the Google Home will then provide customized answers when someone asks about personal information, like calendar appointments or traffic on the route to work.

Messaging feature

You’ll be able to use the Apple HomePod to send messages to others. By using the popular Apple text message service iMessage. Apple already has an impressive ecosystem of products and HomePod should fit in seaml
essly into the system.

Both the Amazon Echo and the Google Home have announcedways of using those speakers as communication devices. The Echo can call other Alexa devices. The Google Home will be able to call anyone in
our address book.

Both the Amazon Echo and the Google Home are great personal assistants, and both are great smart home controllers. However, we think the HomePod will be worth the wait, Apple have a history of delivering quality products and this might just become another “iphone” style revolution.